December 2019
December 28, 2019
Merry Christmas! My horses were not amused with the Santa and elf hats... This week was full of encouraging progress. Dally is starting to relax and drop her head, Patches is less spooky and Jasper is ready for his first ride on Monday. I'm excited for this next week and can't wait to share it with you!
I also had Tanner ride Dally this week because I wanted his opinion on how I was training her. He is six foot tall and Dally is 14.1 hands. She looks like a pony!
December 20, 2019
What a week! I apologize for my absence last week, I was blessed to travel to Nevada with my second family for a little vacation. We stopped at Cowboy Christmas in Las Vegas and then headed down to Pahrump to do a little shooting! We drove through the night, saw some beautiful sunrises and sunsets and had an amazing time.
The day we got back I went to pick up Jasper. Jasper is a black and white, two and half year old Warm Springs mustang gelding that I will train and market to sell in the spring. Keep your eye on him! I will be putting the first ride on him in about a week.
Patches is starting to settle into riding life and is accepting his new job as a broke horse. However, he did kick up his heels on our ride after his four day weekend.
December 5, 2019
"Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug." This week I felt like the bug. Dally and I continue to struggle to get a slow, collected jog trot. And I had the same problem with the first horse I started, so I know that it is me and not my horse. I struggle to relax and melt into the saddle, transmitting my calm to my horses. Instead I am tense, I'm trying to force it to happen instead of just allowing it to happen. I know that I will get through this, it is just one of the training aspects that I wrestle with.
On the other hand, my two-year old Patches, is doing great! He still shows that he is not 100% comfortable with everything but when I show him a new concept or a new obstacle he is quick to comprehend it and respond accordingly. The pedestal was one of these concepts. When I first showed it to him he tried to avoid it by walking around the pedestal. So I continued to re-position him and reinforce that avoiding it was not the answer. When he stopped to look at it or attempted to put a foot on it, I would praise him. This made being on the pedestal the correct answer and once he understood this he started getting on the pedestal willingly!